Wooster and the incomparable Jeeves,
entered, stage left, in 1916. (“Ice formed on
the butler’s upper slopes” was one of Plum’s
descriptions.) The majority of the golf stories
were written during the same period. His
first collection, Golf Without Tears, was
copyrighted in 1919. Between the world wars,
Wodehouse and Ethel lived here, there and
everywhere. Cannes. London. Long Island.
Hollywood. He had become enormously
popular on both sides of the Atlantic and,
despite The Crash and The Depression, a
man of considerable means.

He rented (andeventually bought) ahome near Bolton’shouse in Great Neck(N. Y.), Long Islandand played golf atSound View GC, thefertile playing fieldthat yielded mostof the golf storiesand their narrator,Wodehouse was shuttled through four different camps,The Oldest Member.Sound View fell onhard times duringthe 1930s and wassold as real estate in

A prolific writer, Wodehouse produced 96 books and all or part of 16 plays. Most of his golf stories drew inspiration from Sound View GC in Great Neck, N. Y. (left), where he was a member.

Upper Silesia. “If
this is Upper Silesia,
what must Lower

1947. Though not given to high revelry himself, Plum knew
the F. Scott Fitzgerald crowd. He also did two lucrative
stints in Hollywood.

Silesia be like?” hewrote later. He was, without knowing it, within 30 milesof Auschwitz. During his internment, friends in AmericaIf Retief Goosen had trouble reckoning his tax liabilityinside and outside the United States in 2002-03, imaginewhat the guidelines must have been like in, say, 1932. Inbrief, there weren’t any. Both Great Britain and the U.S.wanted to tax Wodehouse right up to his dorsal fin. Toavoid further entanglements with the authorities, in thelate 1930s Plum and Ethel settled in Le Touquet, a posh sea-side resort in France’s Pas de Calais. By May 1940, however,while Plum was blithely poking about Blandings Castle,Rommel was outflanking the Maginot Line and rollingacross France. The Wodehouses and their beloved Pekinesedogs had stayed in Le Touquet even after Britain declaredwar. By May 20, Plum and Ethel attempted to get out, butEthel’s Lancia (Plum didn’t drive) broke down. They made asecond attempt, got caught up in the vast sweep of human-ity fleeing in front of the German advance, turned aroundand went back home. After May 22 they were trapped. Inlate July all English male non-combatants under age 60 stillin France were interred, including Wodehouse, who was 58.As he had written in a 1930 Jeeves book, “Fate was quietlyslipping the lead into the boxing glove.”(which had not yet entered the war), were trying toobtain Wodehouse’s release through diplomatic channels.Meanwhile, Plum went about doing what he always had,he wrote, keeping a camp diary and producing a novel inlong hand.

Scheduled to be released after his 60th birthday,
Wodehouse was asked almost off-handedly—or so it is
portrayed—by a German officer if he’d like to do a radio
program for broadcast to America. He naively thought it
a wonderful opportunity to stay in touch with his American fans and a great chance to convey his appreciation
for their efforts on his behalf. Wodehouse was freed early
from Tost and taken to Berlin—arriving the very day Hitler declared war on Russia. He was met by Werner Plack,
a failed actor and wine salesman Wodehouse once met
in Hollywood, who asked him again if he’d be interested
in going on the radio. The “coincidence” of running into
Plack never dawned on the oblivious Wodehouse. Foolishly and enthusiastically, he agreed. Wodehouse recorded
five broadcasts, all bearing his distinctive touch, none
political in any way, with the exception of the odd line or
two capable of misinterpretation if one was so inclined.